A win was scored in the fight against global anti-Semitism on Thursday, when the House of Representatives overwhelmingly passed H.R. 1911, the Special Envoy to Monitor and Combat Anti- Semitism Act. Only two congressmen in the entire chamber voted against the bill.

The legislation authored by our own Congressman Chris Smith, whose district encompasses Lakewood, raises the position of the United States Special Envoy to Monitor and Combat Anti-Semitism to the rank of Ambassador at the State Department, and ensures that the Ambassador will report directly to the Secretary of State. The bill also ensures that the Envoy remains exclusively focused on the issue of anti-Semitism, and that the position is filled within 90 days of the bill’s passage.

Smith consulted often with Rabbi Aaron Kotler and the Lakewood Vaad while writing the bill and the Vaad thanks Congressman Smith for his relentless leadership to see it to fruition. Smith is the Ranking Member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee and co-chair of the Bipartisan Congressional Task Force Against Anti-Semitism. He helped free many Yidden unjustly imprisoned worldwide, including Russian Yidden who were exiled to Siberian prison camps, such as Yosef Mendelovitch and Natan Sharansky. In fact, some 30 years ago he traveled to Russia, and famously drove up to Soviet Perm Camp 17, in which many Yidden were held on false charges, and demanded entry. When the guards tried to shoo Smith away, he pulled out a video camera, which in those were quite large, and started to film the barbed wire and guardtowers around the camp. Needless to say, the Russians kicked him out of Russia. Smith also worked, at the request of Rabbi Kotler, to free Yanky Ostreicher from a Bolivian prison. Smith traveled to Bolivia and helped force Yanky’s freedom. Even now he is hard at work to free yet another Yid from prison in Ethiopia, another case he took on at after Rabbi Kotler asked him to intervene with the Ethiopian government.

Congressman Smith was instrumental in originally creating the Envoy position in 2004. Earlier this year during a congressional hearing, the Congressman pressed Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to fill the Envoy position, stressing its importance to the United States and human rights. He has also been working to fill the position with the right Envoy and is nearing fruition on that – with an announcement forthcoming shortly.

“We are pleased to see our longtime advocated and dear friend Congressman Smith reach another historical milestone in his work to promote global justice and defeat anti-Semitism, which threatens Jews around the world,” says Rabbi Moshe Zev Weisberg of The Lakewood Vaad. “We would also like to thank all of the bill’s cosponsors, as well as every member of Congress who voted ‘yes.’ We look forward to continue working together with Congressman Smith and our other friends and allies to make the world a better place.”

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